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I’ve Been Known To Burn The Candle At Both Ends – 21/365 Fire (Photo credit: Jer Kunz)

In the last post, I described the convergence of events that contributed to my burnout. Today, I realized the reason it all seemed so overwhelming.

The problem was that, in my mind, normal tasks that would have been easy, all seemed to jumble together into one, big, THING. Somehow, I eventually was able to take a step back and just take things one day at a time.

On Thanksgiving Day, I hosted a small family dinner. Our upstairs neighbor brought the turkey, I prepared all the sides. During our dinner, the expected arrival of a guest Feldenkrais trainer from Germany occurred as planned.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I spent time with our guest, cleaned up from the holiday, and began to take our equipment from the storage unit to our training venue. Since it was likely that I would miss a day or two of the training because of the trial, I started to delegate some tasks so that everything could proceed smoothly.

The trial began on Monday morning, and ended on Wednesday afternoon. Each day, I kept in touch with my assistants at the training. They were fine. I was back at work at the training on Thursday.

When I write it all out like that, it seems simple. Standing “on the edge,” it felt like everything needed to happen simultaneously.

So here’s my first big tip for dealing with burnout. My schedule became manageable when I broke things down into small pieces, understood a logical sequence, and then just did one thing at a time, in order. I managed to eat well and get enough sleep each night. That self-care, along with staying in the present moment, somehow de-fused my anxiety.

Sometimes, despite my best efforts to keep a sane schedule, things just get crazy. I can plan, but I have to be flexible to allow for the unexpected. Exciting opportunities may come my way, or situations beyond my control may come my way. This time, my resilience only appeared as I reflected in retrospect. Next time, I will just do one thing at a time, until everything is done. And that oxygen mask? I’m keeping it close-by.

What helps you to get through hectic times? Share your experiences here.

One Response to “Anatomy of a Burnout, Part 2”

So nice to see you using that particular Feldenkrais quote. One of my personal favorites!
Thanks for the articles. I really appreciate it… feeling pretty burned out myself lately. This is encouraging, things I am aware of but don’t always apply in the thick of things!

The Inspiration

"Find your true weakness and surrender to it. Therein lies the path to genius. Most people spend their lives using their strengths to overcome or cover up their weaknesses. Those few who use their strengths to incorporate their weaknesses, who don't divide themselves, those people are very rare. In any generation there are a few and they lead their generation." -- Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984)